Machine for rolling metal balls



Dec. 15, 1925- J. R. HINNEGAN MACHINE FOR ROLLING METAL BALLS Filed Feb. 10. 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 J. R. HINNEGAN MACHINE FOR ROLLING METAL BALLS Dec. 15 1925- S' SheetS-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 10, 1925 Dec. 15, 1925- J. R. HINNE-GAN MACHINE FOR ROLLING METAL BALLS- Filed Feb. 10, 19 25 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 mxw Dec. 15 1925- J. R. HINYNEGAN MACHINE FOR ROLLING METAL BALLS Filed Feb. 16, 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 @wM HMMM.

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' Dec. 15, 1925- 1,566.00? J. R. HINNEGAN 1 v MACHINE FOR ROLLING METAL BALLS Fild Feb. 1925 s Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented Dec. 15, 1925.

1,566,007" UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE...

JOHN R. HIN N EGAN, 0F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

MACHINE roa omano METAL BALLS.

Application filed February 10, 1925 Serial No. 8,130.

T 0 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that 1, JOHN R. I'IINNEGAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new and useful Improvements in Machines for Rolling Metal Balls, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a new and useful improvement in process and machine for rollinginetal balls, and has for its object to provide an effective process for automatically and continuously feeding slugs to spirally grooved discs which so operate upon the slug as to produce a ball therefrom and eject said ball from between the discs when completed A further object of my invention is to provide a simple and effective machine for carrying out said process.

With these ends in view, this invention consists in the details of construction and combination of elements hereinafter set forth and then specifically designated by the claims.

In order that those skilled in the art to which this invention appertains may understand how to make and use the same, I will describe its construction in detail, referring by numerals to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this application, in which Fig. 1, is a plan view of a machine for carryingout my improved process with the top plate and mechanism carried thereby removed.

Fig. 2, is a central vertical longitudinal section of the machine certain of the parts being left in elevation.

Fig. 3, is a side elevation of the machine looking in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 1, partly broken away to show the feed chute.

Fig. 4;, is an enlarged plan view of the feeding cam and its mechanism.

Fig. 5, is an enlarged section at the line 5-5of Fig. 1.

Fig. 6, is an enlarged plan view of one of the dies. i

Fig. 7, is a central section of Fig. 6.

Fig. 8, is a further enlarged cross section of the spiral grooves near their largest ends making prominent the showing of the clearance in the grooves and the roughening of the working surfaces of said grooves.

Fig. 9, is a detail plan'of the guide ring.

Fig. 10, is an edge view of Fig. 9.

My improved method of producing metal balls from slugs by subjecting said slugs to oppositely revolving spiral grooves and guiding the slug while being operated upon by these opposite revolving grooves so that they will be gradually reduced in size and brought into spherical shape and finally rejected from the grooves. In the machine here shown adapted for carrying out this process 1 represents a bed plate of sufiicient ,dimensions and strength to withstand the strains of the operation of rolling the balls and 2 is a top plate secured upon the bottom plate by the bolts 3 or in any other well known or convenient manner.

The bottom plate is provided with an extension 4 which supports the bearing 5 in which is journalled the shaft 6 for transmitting power to the machine and this shaft has secured thereon the wheel 7 which may be in the form of a belt pulley or a gear wheel for receiving power from a suitable source; and on the inner end of the power shaft 6 is secured a bevel gear 8.

The extension 4 has the short vertical shaft 9 journalled therein upon the upper end of which is secured the bevel gear 10 the latter meshing with the bevel gear 8.

The top plate 2 is provided with an extension 11 in which is journalled the short vertical shaft 12 which latter has a bevel gear 13 secured upon its lower end, said gear also meshing with the bevel gear 8, while upon the upper end of this short shaft 12 is secured a pinion 14 which latter meshes with the gear wheel 15 secured upon the trunnion 16 and this trunnion is journalled in the upper plate 2 and is formed with the disc 17 so that when the powershaft is re volved this disc will be revolved through the train of gears just described.

The short vertical shaft 9 has secured upon its lower end a wide faced pinion 18 which meshes with the gear wheel 19 the latter being secured to thetrunnion 20 which is formed with the disc 21 so that when the power shaft is revolved this last named disc will also be revolved through the train of gears last described but in an opposite direction to the disc 17.

22 is a bushing externally threaded and adapted to be screwed into an internally threaded opening in the lower plate 1, for the adjustment of the disc 21 relative to the disc 17 for the purpose hereinafter set forth.

This bushing is provided with a flange 22 having holes 22 for the application of a suitable wrench to set up or back off said bushing.

23 represents the top circular die which is secured against the under surface of the disc 17 by the threaded thimble 24 which latter is provided with a head adapted to fit within a central circular recess within the die, and in order that this die may be properly located upon the disc and prevented from turning thereon splines 25 carried by the disc project into suitable spline grooves in the die as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 5.

26 represents the bottom circular die which is removably secured upon the upper face of the disc 21 by the thimble 2% in the same manner as just described for securing the die 23 to the disc 17, the spline 26 serving the same purpose as the spline 25. In order that the discs 17 and 21 may be revolved with as little friction as possible and sustain the thrust and strains incident to rolling balls, hardened plates 27 and 28 between which the balls 29 are enclosed are provided for this purpose or if desired other forms of roller or ball bearings may be used.

The circular dies 23 and 26 are of hardened steel and each of these dies has formed upon one face thereof the groove 30 which latter is in the form of a spiral and starting from the outer circumference of the die this groove gradually tapers or is narrowed until it reaches the inner circumference of the disc.

' 81 and 82 represent a pair of guide plates which are adjustably secured upon the lower plate 1 by bolts passing through the inclined slots 81 and 33 and 3d are similar pair of guide plates likewise secured upon the opposite side of the plate 1, and the adjacent edges of each p air of guides are inclined toward each other so as to make a tapered passageway through which the slugs are fed to the spirally grooved dies and to hold said slugs against lateral movement while being acted upon by said dies.

A. ring 34 located around the head of the thimble 24: serves to guide the inner ends of the plates 31, 32, 33 and 34, said ring having dove-tailed grooves 34* through which the inner ends of said guide plates slide.

and 36 represent two pusher bars which are fitted to travel in the grooves formed by the adjacent edges of each pair of guides and these pusher bars are retracted by the springs 37 attached to any suitable portion of the machine or brackets thereon and these pusher bars are actuated by the cam levers 38 each of said levers being pivoted as at 39, the tail ends thereof projecting through an opening d0 formed in the pusher bars while the opposite end of each of these levers carries a roll 4-1 for traveling upon the periphery of the lower disc 21 and the periphery of this disc has the cam 42 formed thereon so that as this disc revolves it will first actuate one of the cam levers 38 and then the other, thus alternately reciprocating the pusher bars.

and a l represent two identical chutes, the lower end of each of which leads to one of the grooves formed by the adjacent edges of the guides 31 and 82 or 33 and Set, and these chutes serve to convey the slugs from any suitable source such as a hopper 46 into the path of travel of the pusher bars so that when said pusher bars are reciprocated they will force one of these slugs into position to be picked up by the grooves in the dies and the action of these grooves, in their rotation upon the slug will successively reduce the slugs in size and shape until the completed balls are produced by the time the material reaches the inner ends of the grooves where it will be dropped by gravity through the hollow trunnion.

Thus it will be seen that when the machine is in operation slugs will be alternately fed into the spiral grooves of the dies from each side of the machine so that during the continuous process of rolling these slugs into the finished balls two sets or rows of such slugs will be simultaneously acted upon thus giving the machine large capacity and as all of these operations are automatic it requires little orno attention so that the labor cost in producing metallic balls will be reduced to a minimum.

The space between the top and bottom die may be varied for the making of different size balls by varying the adjustment of the bushing 22 as will be readily understood.

Each of the grooves 30 is backed away as indicated at 30 so as to more readily accommodate the slug before it is brought to spherical shape, whereby the remainder of the surface of each groove becomes the working or operating surface and this operating surface is roughened as indicated at 47 for a certain distance beginning at the large end of the groove so as to take a positive hold upon the slug when forced into the grooves and compel the revolving of said slu This is of vital importance in the operation of the machine and hastens the rapid reduction of the slug to spherical shape and prevents the wear and tear upon the surfaces of the grooves which would otherwise be occasioned should the slug not be given a rotary motion.

hen it is desired to true up or resurface balls which have become worn it is only necessary to feed such balls to the spiral grooves in the same manner slugs are fed thereto, the dies being adjusted to suit such work.

Of course I do not wish to be limited to the exact details of construction as herein shown as these may be varied within the limits of the appended claims without departin from the spirit of my invention.

Havmg thus fully described my invention, what I claim'as new and useful is 1. In a machine for rolling slugs to spherical shape, the combination of two circular dies, each of said dies having a tapered spiral groove formed in one surface thereof, said dies being so mounted relative to each other that the spiral of said grooves will be in opposite directions, discs upon which the dies are mounted, each disc having a trunnion journalled in the machine, guide plates interposed between the dies for forming adjustable passageways for the guiding of the slugs, means for feeding slugs to the opposite sides of the dies, and means for rotating the dies in opposite directions.

2. A machine of the character described comprising a lower plate, a bushing threaded into said plate, a trunnion journalled in the bushing, a disc carried by the trunnion, a circular die secured upon the disc, a tapered spiral groove formed in the upper surface of said die, a gear wheel secured to the trunnion, a pinion with which said gear wheel meshes, a short shaft upon which the pinion is secured, said short shaft being journalled in a portion of the machine, a bevel gear carried by the upper end of the short shaft,

a second bevel gear meshing with the first named bevel gear, means for rotating the last named gear, a top die having a tapered groove in the lower surface thereof, said groove being spiralled in the opposite direc tion from the groove in the bottom die, a disc to which the upper die is secured, a trunnion formed with the upper disc, a gear wheel'secured to the last named trunnion, a pinion meshing with said gear, a short shaft upon which said last named pinion is secured, a bevel gear secured to the lower end of said short shaft, the latter meshing with the power bevel gear, means for feeding slugs to the spiral grooves, and means for giving said slugs a positive initial rotary movement.

3. In a machine of the character described, the combination of two circular dies, each of said dies having a tapered spiral groove formed in one surface thereof, means for revolving said dies in opposite directions, guide plates interposed between the dies for guiding slugs while being acted upon by the .dies, a ring having dove-tailed grooves therein through which the inner ends of the guide plates pass, and means permitting the adjustment of said guide plates to and from each other.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto aflixed my signature.

JOHN R. HINNEGAN. 

